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Some players become so synonymous with a jersey number that it sticks with them foreverEvery club has a player or players that are denoted by the number on their jersey. Maradona, Pele and Lionel Messi couldn’t be anything other than a number 10 for example. Alan Shearer wouldn’t be seen without a 9 on the reverse of his shirt. There are plenty of others. Players who are so good that a certain figure will always be “their” number. Supporters never forget them, but history is often a burden on players that follow in the footsteps of wearing a number associated with an icon of any club. No matter how hard they try, reference is always made to the idol who wore it before if the new incumbent isn’t up to the mark.Let’s take a look at five players that have failed to live up to their contemporaries –
#1 Arsenal number 6 - Philippe Senderos
Tony Adams. Mr Arsenal.
Thierry Henry, Dennis Bergkamp and Ian Wright will continue to rank highly in the “best ever to wear the Arsenal shirt” rankings, but no one can compare with the Gunners’ number 6, a real captain fantastic.
Arsene Wenger is surely in Adams’ debt as far as the transition into English football goes. Maybe the thanks should be from Adams? The Frenchman was known to have changed almost everything from the George Graham and Bruce Rioch eras, from training regime to diet etc. Perhaps that contributed to Adams’ longevity and excellence in the role.
A proper old school stopper, Adams had his limitations, but he played with immense heart and desire. He remains the only player to have captained title-winning teams in three different decades having held the armband for 14 years from 1988.
After his retirement in 2002, his number wasn’t used again until the arrival of Philippe Senderos in 2004. In the six years that Senderos was registered as a Gunner, he made just 84 appearances, with his time in north London blighted by constant injury concerns and associated loss of form. Two of those seasons were also spent on loan at AC Milan and Everton respectively after a falling out with Wenger.
He was, probably quite uniquely, a defender who couldn’t really defend. Arsenal don’t often make major inroads in the transfer market, but Senderos remains one of their worst. Fans of the club breathed a huge sigh of relief when Fulham finally took the player on a free transfer in 2010.
#2 Manchester United number 7 - Angel Di Maria
The best in the business have worn the “famous number 7” at Old Trafford.
George Best, David Beckham, Eric Cantona and Cristiano Ronaldo have all had the honour of wearing the shirt that every United player covets, and each of those players has done himself justice in the colours of the Red Devils.
Many of United’s most iconic moments have come from the players mentioned. Cantona’s chip, Beckham’s goal from the halfway line, Ronaldo’s free kick against Portsmouth...we would be here all day.
What a shame then that another player with a super reputation wasn’t able to be the next in line to the throne.
Angel Di Maria’s tenure at Manchester United has been uncomfortably bad and Louis van Gaal needs to take the blame to a certain extent. Shoehorning players into a system that he wants to play rather than what suits his players was only ever going to end one way. Look at Radamel Falcao as another example. Both he and Di Maria are still players of the highest quality and will prove to be so at Chelsea and PSG respectively.
However, the 2014/15 season can’t be erased from memory. Four goals in 32 appearances in all competitions is not what you would expect from a £59.7 million man.
#3 Liverpool number 9 - Rickie Lambert
Brendan Rodgers has been heavily criticised for the quality of his recent signings. Rickie Lambert was on fire as Southampton’s “old fashioned” number 9, a shirt number he took over when arriving at Anfield to spearhead Rodgers’ Anfield revolution. Well, that was the plan at least.
His limitations in Rodgers’ inventive formation has been exposed time and again and despite professing to be a boyhood Red, Lambert hasn’t enjoyed anything like the adulation he might’ve expected upon signing. When you’ve scored less than half a dozen goals in a season, what do you expect.
How the Kop must yearn for the days of El Nino, Fernando Torres.
Despite the Spaniard leaving in acrimony, there is little doubt that he was one of the best marksmen that Liverpool have had in recent times. Perhaps the best. Not even Robbie Fowler or Michael Owen got to 50 Liverpool goals as quickly as Torres did, in just 72 games.
His movement, link-up play and quality of finish were as good as it gets and Torres deserves to be spoken about in the same breath as other Anfield legends. It is just a pity that Lambert hasn’t really been able to make a lot of the chances he has got at Liverpool.
#4 Real Madrid number 18 - Julien Faubert
Aitor Karanka is currently enjoying a successful managerial stint at Middlesbrough after a tenure as Jose Mourinho’s number two at Real Madrid.
It’s at Los Blancos where the towering centre-back made his name from 1997 onwards. His arrival coincided with a sustained period of success and Karanka’s defensive prowess was one of the major factors why Real managed to win three European Cups, one La Liga, one Intercontinental Cup and two Supercopa de Espana during his playing days.
Alongside Fernando Hierro and Ivan Helguera, Karanka was a solid addition and wore the number 18 with pride. The same can’t be said for Julien Faubert, a loan signing from West Ham.
The writing was on the wall at his unveiling when Real legend Alfredo Di Stefano evidently had no idea who he was. A reasonable player for the Hammers, he was never Real Madrid quality and the reason for his signing is still unclear.
He made his debut against Racing Santander on February 7, 2009 and featured only once thereafter. Missing training because he thought that he had the day off and falling asleep on the bench in the match against Villarreal characterised a disastrous time at the Santiago Bernabeu.
#5 Barcelona number 21 - Aleksandr Hleb
It’s not always numbers 1 through to 11 that become iconic for a club. Take FC Barcelona for example. One of their exemplars as a player is now their manager. Luis Enrique was, and is, synonymous with the number 21 and it’s unlikely there will ever be another player that pulls on that number for the Blaugrana and plays with as much intensity and passion as Lucho did.
It was the conviction in his style of play that won Barca’s fan base over after his transfer from arch-rivals Real Madrid. No other player has made the transition so seamlessly. Aleksander Hleb arrived from Arsenal as an established and skillful member of the Gunners’ side, but any skill was obviously left in north London because the player clearly didn’t bring it with him to Catalonia.
Handed the number 21 upon arrival, the difference between him and Enrique is like night and day.
Quite why he struggled so badly is a mystery but it isn’t an exaggeration to say that there isn’t one memorable performance from Hleb that sticks in the memory. When you consider that his signature was during the Guardiola years and the success during that period, it’s astonishing that he was so poor whilst virtually everyone else was at the top of their game.
